


All Hail the Conquering Hero

by suomifae



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: GET REKT VLADIMIR, Ghost King!Danny, HHHHHNNNNNN, and cw is probably definitely up to something, danny is just a tired teenager that wants to go to bed, gore?? violence at least, ill add tags as i add more bc spoilers but let me tell you shit goes down, the Observants are useless as always, well hey its complete now
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-09
Updated: 2016-01-11
Packaged: 2018-05-12 20:16:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5679352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suomifae/pseuds/suomifae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Ghost Zone must have a King, or so they say. And poor Danny Phantom, well it just so happens to fall on his shoulders. And a crown is a heavy burden to bear.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Coronation

**Author's Note:**

> DID I EVER SAY HOW MUCH I LOVE GHOST KING DANNY BC I DO. A LOT. 
> 
> yall can blame punkhalfghosts, frostisass, and promsien for this bc all their art is beautiful and i hate them for it bc it makes me do THIS

> _“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” – King Henry IV (Act III Scene I)_

“No,” Danny Phantom said sternly as he floated before the Master of Time, “the Observants can fuck off.”

“Daniel,” Clockwork admonished, “this is non-negotiable.”

“I don’t care!” Danny flung his hands in the air dramatically, “I don’t care what those stupid floating _cheese puffs_ want and I don’t care about this ‘meeting’ they want me to come to. I’m not going. I’m busy.”

“You’re sixteen, Daniel, you’re not that busy,” Clockwork countered, slightly amused by Danny’s antics. He knew the boy would come to the meeting in the end, so watching him flail about and whine was entertaining.

“Not that busy?!” Danny screeched, _highly_ offended this time, “I don’t even _sleep_ with how busy I am! I have school and homework and ghost fighting nearly twenty-four-seven and you think I’m _not busy_?”

“No,” he said simply, smirking as he watched Danny practically implode at the response. It was always fun to tease the boy, and also the fastest way to get him to the Observants. This meeting was going to be a pivotal moment in Danny’s future, it would be a pivotal moment in all of _history_ , honestly. It would be the first link in a very important chain.

Danny narrowed his eyes, miffed. It was hard enough trying to save the town from constant ghost attacks and balance semi-good grades in school without being told by an asshole of a ghost that the holier-than-thou eyeballs needed him to attend some shitty meeting, let alone getting smack talked by a clock. He was not having this today, no sir, he was way too tired.

“I’m still not going,” he said as he crossed his arms. This was the end of the discussion for all he cared.

“ _Time Out_ ,” Clockwork said with authority as he waved his staff. He pulled a time medallion from a pocket in his robes and flung it over Danny’s head, freeing him from the frozen time stream.

Danny continued to glare at Clockwork before noticing the new weight around his neck, then he glared down at the medallion. “You can’t just freeze time! That’s cheating! Or something, I guess.”

Clockwork smirked, “I can freeze time whenever I wish, Daniel. It comes with the job.” He tapped at his staff, “So, now that you have plenty of time…” he gestured towards the Fenton portal, where he had initially cornered the younger ghost.

“Fine,” Danny grumbled. He probably wasn’t going to get out of this either way so he might as well do it while time had stopped, that way he could put off doing his homework. He flew through the portal begrudgingly and if he could have stomped his in instead then he might have. He was going to this thing the Observants wanted but that didn’t mean he had to like it. 

Clockwork followed him sedately, pleased with himself. Everything was coming together quite nicely, and everyone still none the wiser. 

* * *

“Danny Phantom,” one Observant, indistinguishable from the rest, said imperiously from its position at the front of the crowd, “you have answered our summons.”

Danny frowned up at them, he knew he should be taking this seriously, they _seemed_ pretty serious about whatever was going on, but honestly he was too tired and worn out to care. He just wanted to go home and sleep forever, “Yeah, yeah,” he said with a flippant wave of his hand, “can we just- can we just get to the point here?”

The Observant reared back and then haughtily tipped its head up to the side in indignation. Like one might see an old and very judgmental old lady do when she was particularly offended. The Observant even muttered out an “I never!” much like the aforementioned old lady might say. 

Danny rubbed a hand over his face, he was numb and already quite exasperated and the balloon heads weren’t helping anything.

“So _why_ did you summon me?” he prompted them, disdain dripping from his voice. How could anyone take these guys seriously when all they did was titter about and delay the inevitable, fumbling all the while. 

Another Observant stepped forward and cleared its throat, gaining everyone’s attention, “We have summoned you to take your rightful place in the Ghost Zone.”

“Rightful place?” Danny said skeptically. Knowing the eyeballs that probably meant Walker’s prison, or, he remembered the Dan incident with a shudder, his complete End. Not even death, just his complete and total annihilation. But then again, Clockwork had brought him here, and he trusted the ghost for the most part, so he’d give them the benefit of the doubt. 

“And what place is that exactly?” he said as he crossed his arms. He wanted to start tapping his foot impatiently but that was probably taking it too far. 

“The throne.”

After the few seconds it took to process that statement, Danny started laughing. Logically, somewhere, he knew they weren’t joking about this, the Observants just didn’t _joke_ ; they probably weren’t capable of it. But the idea that they wanted to give him any sort of authority in the Zone was _absurd_. Last time they met they wanted him dead! And now this? Danny was far too exhausted and hysterical to care about laughing in their faces. Eyeballs. Whatever.

Danny clutched at his side, taking in heaving breaths as his laughter tapered off. He wiped at a tear before straightening himself out and saying, “That was a good one. You guys mind running that by me one more time? I’m pretty sure I misheard you.”

The Observants looked taken aback, all of them glancing at each other with nervous looks. None of them seemed to know what to do. 

“We summoned you here so you will be prepared to take the throne. You are the Rightful King of the Ghost Zone.”

Danny sobered up, mind going blank. They couldn’t really be serious, could they? They couldn’t actually think he would be able to handle being a King? That he would just do what they wanted, become the new _Ghost King_ , just like that? This was insane. 

“Um,” he started off, giving them another skeptical look, “No? I mean, I’d rather not.”

The Observants stared down at him, nonplussed for the moment, before exploding into a mass of disgruntled murmurs and panicked arm movements. Danny waited while they conferred among themselves before sighing and floating towards the door.

“Well if that was all…” he jerked a thumb in the direction of the exit, “I’d like to head out.”

“Phantom,” one of the Observants said hurriedly, stepping apart from the others with an arm held out, “you cannot deny your crown.”

“What crown?” Danny scoffed, he was getting increasingly uncomfortable and just wanted to leave. “I don’t know where you guys got this idea from, but I’m not royalty and I’m not gonna _become_ royalty any time soon.”

Danny was startled when he felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder, his initial panic lessening when he noticed it was Clockwork.

“Daniel,” the Time Master said softly, “this is non-negotiable.”

“What do you even mean by that?!” Danny said, shrugging the hand away and backing up a few steps, “I still don’t understand what’s going on!”

Clockwork sighed, “Technically, and I mean very technically, _you_ are the heir to throne of the Ghost Zone by right of conquest. And trust me Daniel, the Ghost Zone needs a King.”

“But,” Danny backed away even further, this seriously couldn’t be happening, “but, _how?_ I mean, I didn’t really even do anything! Vlad’s the one that locked Pariah back in the coffin! Make _him_ King!”

“But _you_ are the one that put him there. _You_ are the one that truly defeated Paraiah Dark. _You_ will be our new King.”

“No!” Danny shouted, rapidly shaking his head, “I won’t! I don’t want to!”

“Daniel,” Clockwork said sternly as Danny’s back hit a wall, he was cornered, “whether you want to or not doesn’t matter. You must be King.”

And suddenly Clockwork was ripping the Medallion from Danny’s neck and he froze, joining back with the rest of the frozen time stream. He and the Observants were the only ones immune to his powers after all. He was under Time’s control now. 

“I would be sorry about this Daniel,” Clockwork said softly, “but I’m not.”

Without preamble he took the two items from his pockets. The Crown of Fire and the Ring of Rage; the marks of the Ghost King. He placed the crown on Danny’s frozen head and then slipped the ring onto one of his fingers. 

A burst of power shot through the room, blinding all of the inhabitants. The Ghost Zone accepted its new King, even if the King hadn’t accepted his role. There was no difference in Danny now, but Clockwork knew it was only a matter of time before that changed.

One of the Observants tentatively floated towards him asking quietly, “Are you sure this is the best course of action?”

“Yes.”

The first domino had fallen.

 


	2. Domination

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DANNY IS FUCKING PISSED.

> _“Having nothing, nothing can he lose.” – King Henry (Act III Scene III)_

Danny shifted in his place upon his throne. He hated this. He hated being King, he hated having to sit here. He hated everything he had to do. And most of all he hated Clockwork for forcing this on him. He didn’t want to be King, he didn’t want _any_ of this and it made his blood boil to think about how it all came about. How Clockwork had essentially betrayed him.

No one told him what it meant to be King, they simply thrust the crown upon his head without a thought.

He hated it.

He lost his friends and he lost his family. He lost his everyday life; his school, his teachers, his homework, his days hanging out with his friends, his time with his family; his mom, his dad, his sister. He lost everything.

All because of the crown, now slowly forming shards of ice, upon his head. 

If one could admire it, which he never bother with because it was a symbol of such misery and hatred, one could see its delicate beauty. The base of the crown was a solid gold and looked like any crown would, with the typical spikes and such, but it was also completely covered in ancient etchings. They were intricately detailed, like something you would find in a Celtic knot, woven within itself and almost seeming to move if one stared at it long enough. But the truly beautiful part was the mix of ice and fire that formed around it. Ice, so very thin looking but deceptively strong, curled around the spikes of the crown and swept away from it in motionless waves. Ice also made thick ropes, like vines, and entwined themselves around the base, crystalline and clear and digging into the white hair of the boy below. Diamond shaped ice crystals, ranging from the size of a penny to a match, floated in place around the crown, dancing in the fire and glittering in the eerie light. The fire flared around it all, low in flame and a brilliant green in color, licking at the ice and always moving, silently crackling and snapping.

He hated this crown and everything it stood for. 

No one told him being King meant he was trapped in the Ghost Zone essentially for the rest of his existence. Apparently it had taken Pariah _centuries_ to build up the power to leave the Zone, against the wishes of the crown and the ring, and it would take _him_ even longer. By the time he would be able to do it, what would be the point? His friends and family and everything he had ever known would be long gone by then, turned to ash by the sands of time. And oh how he hated Time. 

There was nothing he could do, so he sat on his throne and he _seethed_. 

He could feel the power of the ring and the crown seeping into his bones, warping him, changing him. He didn’t care. He let it happen. He was beyond anything else in the world aside from hate and- _longing_. 

He did nothing on his throne but reminisce and rage, he didn’t move, he couldn’t. The power of the ring and the crown kept him there. He could feel his human half dying, slowly, from lack of nutrients and sleep and sunlight and everything else he longed for. He was dying and it hurt. 

Time passed, and he hated it. He could feel himself grow older, just slightly, before he stopped growing at all. He hated what that meant, what he had become. He hated everything.

He didn’t know how long he sat on his throne, stewing in his hatred and pain and pining. 

The Observants, at one point, had come to cajole him, quite fearfully, into doing his Kingly duties. Which were to see over the Ghost Zone and govern the ghosts within. 

Why should he care about any chaos they might wreak? They had gone long enough without a King before him, they didn’t need one now. A fact which only fanned the flames of Danny’s rage. They didn’t need a King and all his suffering was _pointless_. 

With a wave of his hand, Ring of Rage perched upon his index finger, he engulfed them all simultaneously in ice and fire. 

He eviscerated them all without a care, watching as they screamed and flailed and came to their final End. He reveled in their ashes. Pleased for half a second that he could enact some form of revenge and that he had wiped out some of the most annoying beings to ever inhabit the Zone. 

But then he went back to boiling in hate and yearning for what once was and could never be again. 

He could not turn back time and the one person that could he was likely to destroy on sight, it didn’t help that Clockwork had made himself very scarce after Danny’s coronation. He likely saw his own demise in a future where he stuck around. Danny didn’t blame him for hiding, but he blamed him for _everything else_. 

Eventually there came one, very notable, interruption to the monotony of Danny’s existence. It would eventually change everything.

Danny watched with a detached curiosity as the heavy wooden doors of his castle and ghostly lair opened with a slow and dramatic creak. The sound echoed in the vast hall of his throne room, a stark and black place that absorbed most light like a void, only the green glow of torches set about the hall produced any light. When he closed his eyes sometimes he could pretend he was floating in space for how dark and quiet it was.

Boots clacked against the black stone of his floors, the sound also echoing ominously as the figure that had opened his doors slowly approached. 

Danny’s rage flared higher as he recognized the man now standing before him.

“Plasmius,” he said in a deadly hiss. His knuckles grew white as he clutched at the arms of his throne. This man was once his arch nemesis and he had done so much in his life to ruin Danny’s, he wondered if the man ever succeeded in killing his father and wining his mother. It wasn’t like Danny had been there to stop him recently. He was about to raise his hand, intent to kill, to _burn_ , when he noticed something off. 

Vlad wouldn’t look him in the eyes. 

The once proud man stood tall yet stiff, his hands clasped behind his back and for all the world looking like the pompous asshole Danny knew from before. But Danny could see the tension and the fear flowing off of him like waves. And it struck him, Danny was very powerful now and Vlad was- Vlad was actually _afraid_ of him. 

Danny wanted to laugh, but he also wanted to see what Vlad was up to so he wasn’t about to anger the man by laughing in his face. He sat back in his throne and he waited. 

Vlad fell to one knee, like a knight from decades past, and lowered his head, “Daniel,” he said softly before begrudgingly adding, “My King.” He had to spit the last word out, pride not quite demolished by his fear.

“What brings you here, Plasmius?” Danny said stony-faced and calm. His voice was deeper now and radiated power, he could see Vlad quiver in fright just slightly. He hid it well.

“I-,” Vlad hesitated, gathering his words as he raised his head but kept himself down on one knee. He stopped as Danny raised to his feet for the first time in _years_ and circled around the man. 

Danny took this time to examine the half-ghost before him (if he was still even half) waiting for Vlad to spit out and overcome his nerves. And oh how it pleased him that the tables had turned so much. _He_ incited fear in _Plasmius_ instead of the other way around. He watched the man closely.

He looked the same yet different. He hadn’t aged a day, even though Dany knew he had been sitting on his throne for a very, very long time. Perhaps Vlad had also lost his humanity somewhere along the line, causing his aging process to stop like Danny’s had. He looked the same in that manner, but the rest of his appearance had shifted. His hair was down and out of that ridiculous cheesy vampire style it had once been in. His clothing had also changed, there was no longer a silly collar to his cape but a practical hood. He looked like, well, he looked like less of a _joke_. Less of the cartoon villain Danny used to fight.

This piqued his interest. He repeated his question, softly this time, his tone only conveying his curiosity, “What brings you here, Vlad?”

Vlad lowered his head and began, quietly and strained, “There is nothing left for me back in the human realm. Everything is _gone_. You- You are the last person I have ties with, any at all, and after hearing about your new… position, I decided to try and offer my services to you.”

Danny took a moment to let the words sink in. So, everything was _gone_ now? His family and likely his friends? Everything he once knew? He had known this moment would come, had thought it had even passed, to be frank. But it was still a heavy blow to know for sure. He processed the rest of the words and brought a considering hand up to his chin. 

“What kind of services do you mean, Vlad?”

Vlad shrugged, losing all elegance and pride, his eyes darted to the side. “Your advisor, your knight. I don’t quite know, Daniel. Anything. I have nothing else to lose.”

Danny thought it over and carefully brought a hand under Vlad’s chin and tilted his head up to look him in the eye then he let some of his ever boiling rage rise to the surface in a furious strike. He clawed at Vlad’s face with his other hand, nails ripping the flesh of his cheek. 

Vlad cried out and fell to the floor, clutching at the new wound now dripping pink ectoplasm.

Danny gleefully licked at his claws, glad to have some revenge against the man before he made his decision. “Alright Vlad, you can be my Knight, I guess."

And with that he turned on his heel and stalked off into the depths of his castle. He hadn’t bothered to explore it yet after all. Maybe it would do to finally take some action. He had enjoyed spilling Vlad’s blood after all, maybe spilling some more would be fun.

His smile was wide and covered in ectoplasm, sharp fangs poking his lips. Oh yes, maybe he could have some fun.

The second domino had fallen. 


	3. Reign

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ooooh boy OOOOHHH BOY. OHHHH BOYYYYY.
> 
> AUDI (punkhalfghosts on tumblr) DREW MY KING DANNY AND IM CRYING ABOUT IT

 Link to King Danny [here](http://punkhalfghosts.tumblr.com/post/137068340572/click-to-enlarge-because-this-thing-is-huge-i)

* * *

 

 

> _“Not all the water in the rough rude sea can wash the balm from an anointed King” – Richard II_

Danny sat on his throne of skulls, delighted for once by the proceedings of his court. Skulker, General in a faction of his armies, had just brought news of another conquer. Yet another alternate dimension under the rule of the Great Ghost King.

He had long since taken over all of the Ghost Zone, easy pickings when they already recognized him as King, then he had even moved on to the flip-side human realm, crushing anyone in his path, not giving a damn about his former origins. They hadn’t stood a chance, not when he finally had the ability to move about as he pleased. To take what he wanted, and he wanted _bloodshed_.

But this wasn’t particularly unusual news; nothing to celebrate. Not when it happened so often.

No, what pleased him was the return of his most trusted Knight. Vlad had been gone for quite some time on a special mission, and his return meant it was a success (failure was not an option as it meant the End for any ghost or subject and Vlad knew this).

Danny rose from his throne, the movement making a sound like rolling thunder, power flowing off of him like waves and echoing in the blackness of his Hall. His cloak, long and white and bloodstained, trailed behind him with a silken whisper; a sinister undertone to the roar of his power. His footsteps rang loud and equally thunderous as he walked down the steps that led up to his throne and stopped before a kneeling Vlad. His face was grim and solemn, as it almost always was. Danny’s was just as grim to match.

Danny held out his hand and began the age old ceremony that had started between the two of them long ago. Vlad took it and kissed the ring upon his finger, silently swearing allegiance yet again to his King.

Danny took his hand back and gave a small smile, letting some of his excitement peek through.

“You found him.”

Vlad nodded and stood, gesturing to a guard standing near the doors who then opened them with the same dramatic creak.

A figure entered, surprisingly sedately, and made its way towards the King and his Knight.

Danny raised a brow, “You came willingly, Time Master?”

“Oh yes,” Clockwork said as he fell into a bow, giving Danny the respect he demanded, “I felt it was the right time to return, My King.”

Danny hummed in contemplation before returning to his throne, the great sound of thunder echoing in the castle again as he moved. He settled back and looked at Clockwork through lidded eyes.

He didn’t want to destroy the ghost, not anymore. He no longer burned with the same anger as he had before. No, _that_ had long since been replaced with an insatiable blood lust. He reveled in the taste of blood from other beings, he delighted in the destruction of everything around him. He loved seeing the fear in his enemy’s eyes as they realized that the adversary they had severely underestimated was about to absolutely crush them. It was the most delicious feeling in the world to him.

But Clockwork made him curious. And, since he seemed so willing to bow and play the game, perhaps he could make an ally. The Master of Time would make a formidable one.

“Clockwork.”

“Yes, My King?”

“You can see the future,” Danny said as a statement rather than a question.  
Clockwork smirked, hand still over his chest in a semi-bow, “I can.”

“Usually,” Danny drawled while tapping out a slow rhythm on his throne, “you wouldn’t allow for mass destruction like this. So tell me; why let this happen? Why _make_ this happen?”

Clockwork’s smirk turned into a grin, fangs showing in his mouth and red eyes glowing with glee, “Ah, but it was never _my_ decision to prevent ‘the end of the world’ as it were, it was always the _Observants_. This was the only timeline where I would be free from their control.”

Danny’s solemn frown grew into a grin to match Clockwork’s before he threw his head back and laughed. The sound was deep and powerful and crazed, ringing in the empty castle and nearly making the walls shake. Neither Vlad nor Clockwork were fazed, simply letting the young king laugh.

“Excellent,” he hissed when his laughter died out, his fists were clenched by his sides as excitement filled him and pumped through his long-dead veins. Oh, this would be fantastic. Oh, so very, very fantastic.

He picked up a skull from his throne, all the bones of people he once knew, (once cared about so very much so very long ago) and crushed it in his fist, the cracking of bone almost muted compared to the booming sound of his power spreading out into the Hall in an enthusiastic burst.

He let the resulting dust fall from his fingers before standing. He grabbed a sword hidden behind his throne and pulled the deadly blade from its sheath. He trailed a claw along its edge, the scratching sound piercing and shrill.

His grin was full of sharp fangs as he hefted the sword onto his shoulder, the sheath now buckled around his waist. He could already hear the agonizing cries of the innocent as he slaughtered them one by one. He could feel the blood already running down his face. Anticipation for the coming battle, the coming _conquer_ , made him all the more eager to get this over with.

He stood before Clockwork, the ghost already kneeling as he knew what was to come, he set the sword on the other man’s shoulders, dubbing each of them slowly.

“You shall be my second Knight, oh Master of Time.”

“Yes, My King,” Clockwork said breathlessly as he raised his head to meet Danny’s eyes. He knew what was even _still_ to come and he faced it without fear.

Danny grabbed the man under his chin with a growl before dragging a claw through the scar already adorning his face, creating a new one altogether. Ectoplasm seeped from the wound and yet Clockwork never flinched.

Danny grinned again as he released his hold, licking the green blood from his fingers.

“Let’s go then, shall we?”

The three men walked out of the Hall, ready to tear all the worlds apart. No one stood a chance.

The last domino had fallen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :^)

**Author's Note:**

> aHAHAHA


End file.
